The concept of why DEI is a very important chapter of our society and one that can often create polarizing views leading to more division than inclusion if not approached in the right way. One of the primary drivers of this division is often rooted in the dominant buying motive and asking yourself and your team a simple series of questions can help to solve this. Diving into not only their professional goals associated with creating equity but also the human experience associated with societal transformation from a broad segment of participants. We will provide a worksheet at the end of this article that you can use to implement this process.
The above video gives you a chance to dive into a deep conversation between two leaders eager to leverage technology and innovation to create equity. In this discussion Julius and Nathan dive into their own lived experiences and share valuable insights with clear action steps on how to redefine how you view DEI as a whole. Ultimately coming to the conclusion that the general goal of any DEI initiative is not to highlight the diversity of people based on how they identify but instead showcasing the similarities of people absent of their color. This is why DEI doesn’t need to be your focus. Your focus needs to be on understanding the persona of your organization and how it can be used as an economic engine for workforce development within the communities it operates within.
The next big piece of the puzzle is understanding how to build a program that works and the keys to implementing it. The biggest driver of this starts within your organization and taking the feedback to define your level of commitment. Then you will match that commitment with a team of leaders that scored the highest on the initiative priority survey. They will become the community action committee that will lead this program through their business units.
They are the deciding factor of if this program will live or die so allowing this team to lead their own goals is vital. Regardless of the business that you are in, the greatest advocate and adversary of every brand are the people that work within the four walls of it. Your employees are the inside scoop on the quality of the brand and their stories carry weight in the community. Through creating a directly connected path from them to the community you are empowering them with a collaborative workforce program that is stage and culturally relevant to the communities needs.
You don’t have to build programs like this alone and we actually highly advise that you don’t. This style of programming allows for there to be a strong level of participation both within the organization but also outside of it within the community. This leads to the need to have very clearly defined and programmatic marketing campaigns running in tandem with your community engagement initiatives. This acts as a catalyst that can drive talent brand strategy, social impact brand equity, employee engagement and much more.
This also opens you up to access to billions of dollars in public and private partnerships programs designed to accelerate the upskilling of workers across America. A great example of this is the Tech HUBs program that is actively being deployed across America. Allocating $10B for the development of emerging tech ecosystems with inclusion designed into the fabric of the programs you build. This acts as a way to supplement the cost of your talent acquisition and development and in return America increases the rate of job creation in high-demand market segments within America. Programs like these have allowed for the creation of billions of dollars in value to communities around the globe by realizing the need to create diverse and culturally aligned talent and venture development programs.
Right now a lot of people feel like the death of DEI is here but we would argue that the narrative has simply changed. This is why DEI doesn’t need to be your focus anymore because the time of sharing what the problems we have are is over. We are now in a season of action and implementation and to create true progress and test if the billions of dollars committed to change made a difference you must remove the leish from the dog. Allowing the dogs to run on their own while maintaining and expanding their values despite not having a mandate to do so. If the organizations are truly aligned you will see a sustained growth in economic development and job creation within the targeted communities.
The above steps are the actual approach that we have taken to a number of innovation projects throughout our careers. Working alongside both the private and public sectors to drive sustained economic growth that has created generational wealth for underrepresented communities.
If you would like to have access to our Impact Innovation Handbook with content, tools, tips and templates to run the Immersion Innovation Process we would be happy to share it. We have spent our entire career developing a robust suite of tools that would make the innovation discovery process easier. Now we’re giving them out for you to use to validate your next startup venture or corporate innovation project.
Access the Immersion Impact Innovation Handbook – Training Videos, Tools, Tips, & Templates
